This application claims benefit of priority under 35 USC 119 based on Japanese patent application PH11-266130 filed Sep. 20, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatuses for sending and communicating motion pictures, and particularly, to a technique of sending clear motion pictures with a simple arrangement.
2. Description of Related Art
When communicating motion pictures with a third party, a prior art compresses and decompresses the images so that the images may be sent in a relatively narrow band. In addition to the compression and decompression, the prior art carries out rate control to send a given number of motion pictures within a given band. This rate control deteriorates image quality.
Since the sending rate of images is limited, the prior art may send clear images with a drastically reduced number of frames, or motion pictures of low quality.
There is a need of sending specific images clearly. To meet this need, another prior art provides a switch for a motion pictures communication apparatus. The switch is pushed to interrupt original rate control and start an exceptional operation to send a specific still image. This technique, however, is far from seamless operability. In addition, the exceptional operation requires additional hardware and software and suddenly drops a frame rate.
In this way, the prior arts can only send, within a limited communication rate, clear images with a drastically reduced number of frames, or rough images with a usual number of frames. To carry out the exceptional operation for sending clear images, the prior arts need additional hardware and software. Such additional hardware and software are unacceptable for data communication terminals that should be compact.
The present invention is to provide apparatuses of simple arrangements for sending and communicating clear motion pictures.
An aspect of the present invention provides a motion pictures sending apparatus having a camera interface for receiving an image signal from a camera, a frame conversion unit for carrying out coordinates conversion on the received image signal and generating image data, a memory for storing the image data, an image processing unit for processing the image data from the memory and providing processed data, an output interface for transferring the processed data to a communication interface unit, and a memory control unit for stopping the updating of image data to the memory in response to an input signal.
The apparatus also has a controller for allowing a user to fix an image in the memory. The apparatus is capable of sending clear images and is simple with minimum hardware and software.